


The New Toy

by firecat



Category: Firefly
Genre: Community: seasonofkink, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Sex Toys, Tentacles, lateral thinking is sexy, punishment (implied), questionable attempts to use appalachian dialect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:00:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24691174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecat/pseuds/firecat
Summary: Inara gives Kaylee a new toy. Turns out it can help with their men troubles. In more ways than you can shake a stick at.
Relationships: Kaylee Frye/Inara Serra
Kudos: 18
Collections: Season of Kink





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mandaanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandaanne/gifts).



> A bit of implied noncon in chapter 3.
> 
> First attempt at writing Firefly fanfic. Liberties have been taken. Whee!
> 
> Submitted to Season of Kink collection for prompt: sex toys

Kaylee admires the new toy.

"Ooh, purple glitter! Shiny!"

Inara is pleased. She is glad she picked something Kaylee likes, even though it's not to her personal taste. 

"It's called a Doemi Ball."

She holds it in both her hands and gives it to Kaylee. The translucent toy is about twelve inches in diameter. One half is scattered with little bumps. The other half with finger-sized rounded depressions.

"Gosh, it's heavy!" Kaylee says, hefting the toy. “And...the outside is kind of sticky."

"That makes it easier to hold."

The toy wobbles in Kaylee's hands. She grasps it more firmly. "It's not quite balanced..."

"There's stuff inside that shifts around," says Inara.

"Oh, can I see? If I open it, will I break it?"

"You don't have to take it apart to see. Put your finger on one of these and push. Wait! Point the knobby end away from you first."

Kaylee squeals as a glistening purple... _appendage_ snakes out of one of the knobs. "What in tarnation!" 

The appendage is covered with little suckers and acts like it has a life of its own, twisting and waving in the air as if seeking something. 

It's about twelve inches long.

"Can I touch it?"

"By all means."

When Kaylee touches the appendage, it wraps around her fingers, pulsing gently. The tip nuzzles into her palm. She giggles. "That kinda tickles!"

Inara touches one of the depressions in a particular way. The appendage begins squeezing Kaylee’s fingers. Starting from the end and moving up the tentacle arm with a rippling motion, the suckers twist and pucker.

"Ooh, that makes me feel all shivery! How did you make it do that?"

Inara shows her the subtle gestural command. Kaylee, a master of all things mechanical, is quick to learn it. Inara shows her a few more things the appendage can be coaxed to do.

"Isn’t that just precious!” Kaylee says. “Do all the other knobblies have those in them too?”

“More or less." Truth be told, although Inara has used similar devices, she hasn't fully plumbed the features of this particular toy. "Why don’t you take it back to your quarters and experiment?”

“My...quarters? Are you giving this to me?”

“I certainly am! You deserve a silly gewgaw after what went down at the shindig.” 

“But I can’t accept this! It must be too expensive. And isn’t it a...Companion thing?”

Inara inwardly shudders at the idea that this cheap physical sensation toy might be considered a _Companion thing,_ then chastises herself. She really needs to work on her snobbish judgements if she’s going to stay with _Firefly._ Her clientele mostly share her tastes and...anti-tastes, but her clientele only make up a small percentage of the people she interacts with every day.

“Companions...use things not entirely dissimilar — for massage and so forth — but no, this isn't a Companion thing. Anyone can have one."

"I can't wait to find out what else it can do! Inara, you're the cat's meow!" Kaylee throws her arms around Inara's neck. Her skin is soft. She smells like patchouli and engine oil.

Inara wonders what a cat's meow is. But it's obviously one of Kaylee's colorful metaphorical compliments, so she doesn't worry about it.


	2. Chapter 2

“I am _done_ with that Mal!” Kaylee and Inara exclaim in unison.

Each was prowling the length of the ship muttering angrily, until they accidentally ran into each other. 

As they head to Kaylee’s cabin, stories are shared. 

Mal has remarked that he thinks Kaylee’s new hair ornaments are “useless as teats on a boar hog.” In front of Simon. 

Mal has barged into Inara’s shuttle without permission, _again,_ and this time has interrupted her sacred ritual of self-examination. And instead of leaving immediately after being told she was so occupied, has asked if that’s the same thing as buttering your muffin. 

And, the worst insult of all, he’s acted completely baffled by their anger. Widening those hooded baby blues, and “I declare, I do not know why you are so tore up.” 

Inara’s inclined to leave it be, after a good girl-to-girl bitchfest. She dislikes conflict to a degree that’s caused trouble more than once for those around her. 

“That’s not good enough, Inara!” argues Kaylee. “He gets away with it because we let him. I want blood. OK, not blood, but at least to give him a taste of his own medicine.” 

“I don’t know, Kaylee. It’s difficult to humiliate Mal. He just doesn’t care what people think of him.”

“He cares what Jayne thinks.” 

Inara is surprised by this. But on reflection she has to admit it’s true, and she’s surprised by Kaylee’s insight. It’s hard to tell outwardly, but Mal cares more about what Jayne thinks than anyone else onboard.

On the other hand, Jayne isn’t going to think what Mal did to them was wrong. He would and does say and do worse. Inara is never quite sure whether his crude and violent act is a way to get a rise out of people, or a manifestation of his true nature. 

Kaylee reluctantly agrees when Inara mentions this. By now they’re back at Kaylee’s quarters, I.e., the ship’s engine room. 

As they step into the engine room, Inara gawks. The entire room is bathed in soft purple light. 

“Kaylee, is this a new decorating scheme?”

“Well, I surely didn’t plan it that way, but that little toy you gave me can do more things than you can shake a stick at.”

Kaylee gestures upward.

The twelve-inch-diameter ball hangs immediately overhead, bobbing slightly from some force Inara can’t discern.

Long translucent purple strands emerge from it and fasten to multiple holding points around the cabin. A number of loose strands of varying length and thickness undulate in the air. The entire contraption glows purple.

“Kaylee! You’ve turned it into a disco ball!”

“What’s a disco ball?” asks Kaylee. 

“Discos were ancient Earth temples dedicated to exploring the pleasures of the body through dance and sexuality,” Inara explains. “We study them extensively in Companion training. The way their sacrificial dance floors were set up to induce trance. The elaborate costuming of the worshippers.”

Kaylee loses interest. She’s never quite cottoned onto all that Companion “sex is religious mysticism” stuff. She’s quite happy to let sex be sex, wham, bam, thank you man. Or men. And/or ma’ams, mx'es...

“I see. But anyhoo, this thingamabob? Do-me ball or whatever? It works great for massage, for lighting, for storage...”

“Storage!?”

Kaylee gestures at a large storage trunk hanging in the air, wrapped snugly by some purple tendrils. “All my stuff for gettin’ gussied up is in there. Since it’s not like anyone on the ship gives two licks about it when I put it on.” 

“Kaylee, I’m in awe of your cleverness. I would never have thought of doing any of those things with the Doemi Ball.”

“Oh? What would you do with it?”

“Well, you saw how the tentacles can be used to create pleasurable physical sensation.”

“Riiight, and...?”

“Kaylee, have you ever wished that during lovemaking you could be pleasured inwardly more than one way at a time?”

Kaylee blinks, trying to process this. Then her face brightens. “Oh! You mean fucked in all three holes at once! You bet. That is hot as blue blazes! There was this one time...”

_I’m a Companion,_ Inara reminds herself. _I learned all the ways to talk about pleasure. I really can’t let myself get so...bothered...by Kaylee’s direct language._

Inara cuts off what’s sure to be a long and detailed story. “Yes, that’s just what I mean. And also, do you ever wish that you or your sexual partner had more than two arms? Or more than ten fingers?”

“Allll the fucking time,” Kaylee confirms.

“Well. That’s what the Doemi Ball is supposed to be for. You can direct it to do things to your sexual partner that you don’t have enough appendages to do yourself.”

Kaylee seems nonplussed. “Well, right, I’ve been using it that way since day one. Except I don’t have a ‘sexual partner’ right now, because that hot dish of a Captain treats me like I’m his sister. And Jayne? Oh my lawdy, tooooo dangerous. I’d totally do him, but only if he was in a cage on some lonely planet, so that afterward I could hop on my ship and be sure to never risk seeing him again.”

“You’d need to use a gag as well,” Inara suggests. 

“Aw, now see, I’m of two minds about that. Some of his dirty talk really gets me going.”

Inara is impressed at the vividness of Kaylee’s imagination. If only she’d had more advantages in life, what a fine Companion she would have made. Of course, it was too late now. 

“Anyhoo, no one to fuck, so I’m directing my little tentacle monster to do things to little ol’ me, all by my lonesome...” She laughs. 

“What about Simon?” Inara inquires.

Kaylee sits bolt upright. “Inara, no! I could never use it on Simon. I would get jealous of it, getting to touch parts of him I wasn’t touching!” She blushes all over, and then seems to wilt into herself. “And besides, he didn’t stick up for me when the Captain insulted me. For all that I’m ass-over-teakettle in love with him, I’m startin’ to feel like he’s too much of a coward to deserve me.”

“I agree, Kaylee.”

“You know, Inara? I deserve to be fucking cherished. If I can’t get that from another person, I’ll just make do with my clever little toy.”

A moment of silence passes. A moment is all Kaylee usually needs to process self-pity, so soon she waxes enthusiastic again. 

“Some days I’m just wore slap out from all the crises around here, and then it is sooo sweet and relaxing to just lie there and have those magic suckers do all the work. And so easy to program. It’s almost as if it can read my mind! Although it did take me a few days to figure out how to program thirteen of them to work together at once.” 

_Thirteen?_ Inara is ‘wore slap out’ just trying to figure out what a single person would use them all for.

She looks up at the storage trunk, and the tendrils holding it so snugly. Her mind is in a whirl. Something about talking about pleasuring with Kaylee can bring out thoughts her Companion training taught her were inappropriate. Mind-sullying. Thoughts about doing things to people without contracts in place. Maybe even without having a conversation first. Mean, wicked things. For all that they wouldn’t damage the body.

Inara makes a note to do some extra self-examination rituals tonight. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Implied noncon in first three paragraphs

It’s never to late to mend. Mal’s learned his lesson. He’s not going to be entering Inara’s cabin uninvited again any time soon. _And_ he’s declared he has mad respect for Kaylee’s hair ornaments.

Inara and Kaylee have learned about several places where he is ticklish, so they can keep him in line in the future.

When Jayne and Simon asked him where he’d been all day, he merely replied mysteriously that he’d been rode hard and put up wet. 

Inara and Kaylee have learned a few things about each other, too. 

Inara approaches Kaylee’s quarters. Purple light seeps around the edges of the doorway.

“Inara! Ain’t you a sight for sore eyes!” Kaylee is wearing one of her prettiest frocks, which displays her soft creamy skin in all the right places. Her dark brown hair is bound up with one of her new ornaments. “What can I do you for?”

“I was wondering. About the Doemi ball.”

“Yup?”

“Do you think we could figure out how to get twenty-six of the appendages to work at once?”

“Come on in and get comfortable, and I’ll get right on the stick about that.”

As Inara lounges on her bed, Kaylee fiddles around with the Doemi ball. Inara enjoys watching the appendages slide in and out and wave around seeking something to attach themselves to. 

“Although,” says Kaylee, her attention still seemingly focused on the ball, “If I’m pondering what you’re pondering…”

“What are you pondering?” Inara asks, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.

“We’ve each got two hands and a mouth, so maybe twenty would be enough?” 

Inara shudders inside and suddenly feels positively bossy. “Come over here, you gorgeous, hot genius. I want to start with just the hands and mouths. I’ll add more assistance from there if I think we need to, shall I?”

“By all means, strike while the iron is hot!” Kaylee says. She crawls onto the bed, handing Inara the Doemi ball. 

Inara puts it to the side. She pulls Kaylee’s face down toward her waiting mouth, and releases the clasp on the ornament so her hair falls free.


End file.
